SOURCE: "The Hon. Mrs. Norton and her Writings," in Longman's Magazine, Vol. XXIX, No. CLXXI, January, 1897, pp. 231-41.

In this excerpt, Taylor emphasizes that Norton's focus in her poetry and novels on her own experiences is not only unavoidable, but is the element that elevates her work above that of her contemporaries.

It was not possible to [Caroline Norton], even had she desired it, to separate her life from her writings. It was precisely in the combination of the two that her power lay. Remove the personal element and little remains to differentiate her work from that of any other graceful and cultivated writer of her time. When [Hartley Coleridge] joined to his enthusiastic commendation the friendly counsel to 'break through the narrow circle of personal and domestic feeling, and to adventure herself upon a theme of greater variety and less morbid interest,' adding the warning that...